Grim UN report on conditions at Manus to pressure minister

Date: February 04 2013

Michael Gordon

A SCATHING report on conditions on Manus Island has urged the incoming immigration minister, Brendan O'Connor, to stop sending asylum seekers to the remote Papua New Guinea island until sweeping recommendations are considered.

The report by the United Nations refugee agency accuses the Australian and PNG governments of being in breach of international treaty obligations and expresses particular alarm at the plight of children in the facility.

Its release coincides with the 10th transfer of asylum seekers to the offshore processing centre, which holds 254 asylum seekers, including 34 children.

The Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who visited the centre last week, supported the recommendations, warning of outbreaks of self-harm and riots if conditions were not improved. ''They're being treated like animals at the moment, including the children,'' Senator Hanson-Young said.

But a spokesman for the outgoing minister, Chris Bowen, defended conditions on the island while committing to ''work constructively'' with the agency, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

''It should be recognised that UNHCR has a longstanding position of opposition to offshore processing that goes back to the time of the previous government,'' the spokesman said, describing facilities at the centre as ''in line with the living standards and amenities for local PNG residents on Manus Island''.

The UN report calls for an early start to processing of claims for refugee status ''in order to prevent increased levels of psycho-social and physical harm amongst asylum seekers in the detention centre''.

More than 20 recommendations include calls for review of pre-transfer assessments in Australia to ensure that vulnerabilities of individuals who may have suffered torture or trauma are considered.

It says no further transfers of children should occur until ''appropriate legal and administrative safeguards'' are in place, including their placement in an open centre, as opposed to ''the current environment of detention''.

''Asylum seekers are distressed and confused about their situation. They are in closed detention, without a process in sight. They feel they have been forgotten,'' the UNHCR's regional representative, Richard Towle, said.

The report, to be released in Canberra on Monday, follows a visit by a three-member team from the UN agency from January 15 to 17.

Senator Hanson-Young, who was forbidden from taking photographs inside the centre, said the lack of privacy for single men was reflected in the absence of doors on toilets.

''There is just no trust at all in the system,'' she said, saying asylum seekers told her they had no warning they were being sent to the island.

Mr Towle said the hot and humid weather on Manus made the temporary accommodation very uncomfortable. ''Due to heavy rain at the time of UNHCR's visit, some areas were extremely muddy and in some places there were large amounts of standing water,'' he said.

The UN agency and the senator were alarmed that children and family groups were not kept separately from the single men, who constitute the biggest group on the island.

A department representative said the selection of the latest group of 19 Iranian and Iraqi single men was based on operational considerations and an assessment of their particular circumstances.

''The completion of this transfer reaffirms the strong message of deterrence for anyone considering risking their lives on dangerous people-smuggling boats,'' the official said.

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